Faces Of Nick Anderson's Defense Is A Scowl That Now Hides A Smile More To Come More To Come More To Come

Sunday Special

April 8, 1990|By Barry Cooper of The Sentinel Staff

Behind the scowl that often is on the face of Nick Anderson lies the personality of a pussycat, a soft-hearted, 22-year-old athlete who loves to laugh and would make the perfect boy next door. Anderson, shooting guard for the Orlando Magic, insists that is so. Yet in his first season as a pro, he has been wary of strangers, figuratively holding them at bay with a gentle but firm stiff-arm.

Years of growing up on the mean streets of Chicago's west side taught Anderson the merits of wearing a tough-guy blank look about his face. He was raised in the 4600 block of West Jackson Street, a tough, inner-city neighborhood.

In that neighborhood, in which homeowners are more likely to own burglar bars than smoke detectors, young boys grow up to be couriers for crack dealers, or they become runners for neighborhood gamblers.

''Walk down the street, and you can see it all,'' Anderson said, recalling his childhood. ''I have seen people using drugs. I have seen cars being stolen. I have seen robberies.''

Of course, not all the kids from Chicago's west side go astray, and Anderson managed to escape his community's enormous reach of drugs, poverty and despair. His mother and father provided a spartan but adequate standard of living for young Nick and their three other children by working each day in a nearby steel mill.

Early on, the Andersons taught their children to ignore the cheap thrills so readily available on the street. Young Nick listened well.

''I never got involved in anything, because my father wouldn't allow it. It is as simple as that,'' Anderson said.

As he would make his way home from Simeon High School, Anderson would look straight ahead with that thick scowl on his face, choosing to ignore the unemployed young men who would gather on the corners each day, whiling away the time by doing nothing. The scowl was Anderson's defense.

Those years of self-discipline have paid off. Anderson is a good kid who listened to his parents, and now he has made it big. He has a guaranteed, 4-year, $2.9 million contract with the Magic, a $40,000 BMW 535 sedan, a $10,000 Rolex wristwatch and a cozy, two-bedroom condo near downtown Orlando. He is the first person in his family to experience instant wealth, and he has spread his riches around. He has purchased five cars since signing with the Magic - the BMW for himself, and cars for one of his brothers, his mother, his sister and his father. He would have purchased a sixth, but he said, ''My other brother already had a car.''

Anderson has made one more major purchase. His parents are divorced, and soon Nick's mother will be leaving behind the west side. Nick has purchased her a fancy new home in an exclusive suburb outside Chicago. He even offered to buy his mother a palatial spread in the Orlando area - maybe in Heathrow - and Alberta Anderson, nearly fully recovered from a near-fatal automobile accident in January, agonized over the offer before deciding, ''I have been on my job for 17 years. I wouldn't be able to just come down there and find another job.''

Nick is the third of four children born to Robert and Alberta. Turning pro means he has had to mature in a hurry. Suddenly, he has become the patriarch of the family. His sister, Zirlee (20), and brothers Patrick (27) and Robert Jr. (25) now often turn to him for advice. For all the members of the Anderson family, help from Nick is just a phone call away.

''If somebody in my family calls me and says that they can't meet the phone bill this month or they don't have enough money to pay the light payment, then if I have the money, I will help them,'' Nick said. ''I don't mind doing that, because in the past my family has always been there for me.''

The kind of sudden wealth Anderson is experiencing can attract an array of hangers-on - ''leeches'' - as Anderson refers to them, and that is another reason he wears that blank expression. He said he would rather not meet new people. Not now, not while he is trying to adjust to living in the South for the first time, not while he is dealing with just having become a father.

Anderson's longtime girlfriend, Cherron Phillips, who lives in Chicago, recently gave birth to their son, Joshua Jamal Anderson. Nick Anderson, with his money, rugged build and handsome looks, is a red-hot property on the Central Florida singles scene. Yet he said he remains emotionally bound to Phillips, even though he said they have not decided whether to marry.

''My girl back home, I know why she wants me,'' he said. ''She wants me because I am Nick Anderson, a person, not because I am a professional basketball player. I can remember when I would show up at school without any lunch money, and she would give me half of her lunch. That's what I am talking about. She was with me when I didn't have a dime.''